1.1: Entrance
You stand in a wide hallway. The marble floor under your feet is cool but not cold. The walls are a neutral blue-grey, the tone matching the temperature of the room, not quite cold. It feels at once artificial and natural. The celing is high, easily enough to be three stories. The room is lit by ornate lighting fixtures; matching chandeleres. The hallway continues for about thirty metres, at the end of which is a fountain, reaching up to the celing. The statue of an angel adorns it. There are two simple wooden doors on either side of the fountain and slightly behind it. Behind you is a set of wooden double doors. These ones carved with abstract but apparently meaningless patterns. A mat is in front of these doors. It is patterned with various tesselations that seem to blend into each other, coloured in shades of red, and imposed over these patterns on the mat is the single word, WELCOME. What do you do? (Chapter 1 Guidelines) Jade is disoriented, to say the least. She also feels a rush of embarrassment as she notices the other people around her, and immediately wonders what they must think of her, standing there in her summer nightgown and clinging to a ragdoll. Her thoughts go along the lines of, Oh god oh god oh god what's going on where am I oh god oh god they're all looking at me oh god oh god oh god. For the moment, she can't do anything but stand frozen in position, hugging her ragdoll and shivering. After a few minutes, however, she gets her bearings and begins milling around, gazing around her at the other people. Giuseppe is on his feet and leaning against the back wall. Looking grave and perplexed, he tries to figure out what exactly has just happened to him - and to these others around him, it would seem. A ragtag grop, he sees little connection between them all which might lead to their appearance here. He looks at one man, who by his appearance is exceptionally drunk, and is rolling on the floor while cursing excessively in German. Well, Giuseppe thought, this probably isn't heaven. _____________________ Nathan blinks several times, hoping that the incredible scene would resolve itself back to the cliff which he seems to have just left. The last thing he remembered was the dream in which he'd been pulled away from Emily, and the clinging sensation of being dragged through something cold and semi solid. He is standing, clothed thank goodness, as surrounded by several other people, though his long overcoat was conspicuously absent. This is absolute bollocks, he thinks to himself. The hall would give St. Peter's basilica a run for its money in terms of silent grandeur, though it was a different kind of grandeur. More silent sentinel than temple of worship. He looks at his fellow compatriots. The youngest is a child, for the love of all that's holy! Why such a young boy?! The oldest is an old, though fairly athletic looking Italian, watching a sputtering drunken man cursing on the floor. A girl about his own age, terrified by the look on her face, is wandering around the rough circle, looking at the others. Finding his voice at last, and with his habitual shyness all but forgotten by the shock of this transition, he adresses the circle. "Excuse me," he says slowly but strongly, his voice echoing from the vaulted ceiling, "But does anyone here know what's going on?" He is amazed at his own ability to keep calm, though the room seems to be a safe enough place.... _____________________ "What the fuck?" It was a situation so odd and unrealistic that those were the only words Sid could possibly muster. There were others around him, but none who he recognised. Where was he? Where was Jack? He looked around to see if Jack had ended up here alongside him, but he was nowhere to be found. He distinctly recalled that it was only himself who had erupted into white light back at the abandoned house, and Jack had merely looked on with surprise. The building was beautiful and grandiose, and had a majestic classical architectural aura to it, like something European. But the overwhelming feeling of supernatural awe suggested to him that this sure as hell wasn't somewhere in Europe. It was somewhere far more sublime. He had never been a believer in the supernatural, on account of the fact that he preferred to focus on the real, but now his definition of what was real was something he was forced to adjust. He recalled watching The Matrix a few weeks ago, one of his favorite films. Perhaps that wasn't just a movie, he thought... perhaps it was a sign from those who control the universe that Sid actually had been living in a simulated world, and this, wherever this place was, was reality. If so, damn them for programming such a shitty life for me, he thought. For a moment, though, he had the intense feeling rush over him like he was trapped here. He may never get back to his own reality and complete his goals there. All the bullying in the world hadn't made him give up and hadn't prevented him from achieving his violent revolutionary goals, but now he was being impeded by fucking supernatural powers?! Sometimes, he thought to himself, I really can't get a break. He noticed a drunk man rolling around on the floor. A man with an Irish accent started asking the others what was going on. "Beats me" Sid told him. If anything was enough to cause Sid to emerge out of his introverted shell, it was this. Circumstances like these were too much for his angsty yet emotionally controlled persona to withstand. "Who the fuck are all you guys?! Where are you from?" The rest were aghast, unable to come to their senses enough to answer this query, save for a few. But the answers they gave were scattered and disconnected. Ireland? A monestary? Goo goo ga ga? There was one tough looking man who looked fully lucid, but his mouth was kept fully shut. "Maybe there's some kind of connection between us that led us here" Sid told them. "I just want to know what's going on and how this all works. I want to know who's behind it. And, most of all, I want to know how to get the fuck out of here and back to where I came from"